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Superbowl Sunday

Last year, we were invited to an enormous all-church Superbowl Party hosted by a very generous family with a large home filled with many television screens. We were excited to go because it was always a good shindig. Interestingly, God had other plans for us. We wound up watching the Superbowl from the inside of a Labor and Delivery Room. Tonight, we are invited to a smaller and more exclusive shindig at the home of good friends, and will enjoy the sounds of our very nearly one year-old son as he makes the “Touchdown!” sign, also known as “All Done!” Of course, he doesn’t yet know that it’s the Touchdown sign because he hasn’t seen football yet. Did I mention that we don’t have a television?

Years being what they are, Superbowl Sunday was not one year ago today. However, one year ago today we were invited over to the same friends we will be visiting today. The occasion, February 1, 2008 was my mother-in-law’s birthday. It was also my due date, and that evening, just before we were set to leave for the party, my water broke.

Thus begins the telling of Nikolay’s Birth Story. It begins not with a bang, but with a whimper … the water was not a gush, but a trickle. In fact, we had to visit my midwife to ensure that it had, in fact, broken. (You see, this story was not intended to end in a Labor and Delivery Room at a hospital. The room pictured above was all set to be our home L+D room: we had the bassinet all ready with clean sheets and blankies; There was a waterproof sheet on the mattress and special old “throw-away” sheets on top of that; we had removed the Flokati carpet from under the bed, thinking that the debris of birth would probably not blend into its cream color; there were curtains on the windows to ensure that neighbors wouldn’t watch, and a birthing ball by the bed. Out of sight: a gigantonormous bath tub to ease my labor.) We figured we’d stop by my midwife, discover that I had been mistaken, and go on to the party. No such luck … though since we’d already crossed town, we figured we’d stop by the party anyway, for just a few minutes. I didn’t sit on any furniture, just in case.